1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a peroral powder delivery device to deliver a peroral powder such as a powdery medicine or a powdery supplement, through an oral cavity.
2. Description of the Related Art
As one of methods of dosing a medicine to lungs of asthma patients, etc., a method to inhale a unit dose of powdery medicine in a capsule by making holes in the capsule has been known and, as a delivery device used for the dosing method, an inhaling type dosing device, for example, as shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9 has been proposed (refer to JP No. 3372105).
The delivery device includes a body 80 for loading a capsule C that contains a powdery medicine, a capsule holder 81 that holds the capsule C to be loaded in the body 80, and a hole making member 82 having a pair of pins 83, 83 to pierce the body of the capsule C which is loaded being held by the capsule holder 81 in the body so. Upon dosing the powdery medicine contained in the capsule C into lungs through an oral cavity, a cylindrical capsule holder 81 is at first fitted to a cylindrical holder receiving section 84 formed to the body 80, the capsule C is inserted into a capsule receiving bore 85 formed along the central axis of the capsule holder 81. Then, a pair of pin insertion holes 86, 86 formed in the peripheral wall of the holder receiving section 84 and a pair of pin insertion holds 87, 87 formed so as to pierce the peripheral wall of the capsule holder 81 are positioned so as to be in communication with each other. Then, pins 83, 83 of the hole making member 82 are inserted from the pin insertion holes 86, 86 of the holder receiving section 84 into the pin insertion holes 87, 87 of the capsule holder 81, thereby making four holes in total in the body of the capsule C held in the capsule receiving bore 85 of the capsule holder 81. Then, the pins 83, 83 of the hole making member 82 are withdrawn from the pin insertion holes 87, 87 to attain a state where the pins are remained in the pin insertion holes 86, 86. In this state, an inhaling port 89 of an inhaling mouth piece 88 formed integrally with the holder receiving section 84 of the body 80 is put in a patient's mouth for inhalation of the powder.
Thus, air is sucked into the inhaling mouth piece 88 through a pair of air passageways 90, 90 which are formed in parallel with each other on both sides of the capsule receiving bore 85 in perpendicular to the pin insertion holes 87, 87 of the capsule holder 81, and a portion of air passing the air passageways 90, 90 flows through the inside of the pierced body of the capsule C, by which the powdery medicine is discharged from the inside of the capsule C, inhaled from the inhaling port 89 of the inhaling mouth piece 88, and dosed into lungs.
Then, in a case of ejecting the spent capsule C from the capsule receiving bore 85 of the capsule holder 81, the capsule holder 81 is at first drawn out of the holder receiving section 84 of the body 80. Then, a needle is inserted from a small hole 91 opened at the bottom of the capsule receiving bore 85 of the capsule holder 81 into the capsule receiving bore 85 thereby pushing out the capsule C held in the capsule receiving bore 85.
However, since the delivery device described above is extremely complicated in the structure and needs a number of individual parts, it involves a drawback that the manufacturing cost is extremely expensive. Further, the operation procedure of the device is also extremely complicated and it requires troublesome operations, upon making holes in the capsule C, of positioning the pin insertion holes 8G, 86 formed in the holder receiving section 84 of the body 80 and the pin insertion holes 87, 87 formed in the capsule holder 81 to be fitted in the holder receiving section 84 so as to be in communication with each other and inserting the pins 83, 83 of the hole making member 82 into the pin insertion holes 86, 86 and 87, 87.
Further, after making the holes in the capsule C, it is necessary for extracting the pins 83, 83 of the hole making member 82 from the pin insertion holes 87, 87 thereby making the holes of the capsule C and the air passageways 90, 90 closed so far by the pins 83, 83, while leaving the top ends of the pins 83, 83 in the pin insertion holes 86, 86 in order not to open the pin insertion holes 86, 86 in communication with the air passageway 90 by way of the pin insertion holes 87, 87. With no such operations, the powdery medicine in the capsule C can not be inhaled. In a case where the pins 83, 83 are not completely extracted out of the pin insertion holes 87, 87 or in a case where the pins 83, 83 are drawn out erroneously also from the pin insertion holes 86, 86, it is difficult to inhale the powdery medicine in the capsule C.
Further, also in a case of ejecting the spent capsule C through the capsule receiving bore 85 of the capsule holder 81, it requires a troublesome operation of inserting the needle from the small hole 91 opened at the bottom of the capsule receiving bore 85 and pushing out the capsule C.
Further, since the dosing device described above has such a structure that respective parts of the body 80, the capsule holder 81, and the hole making member 82 are separated from each other, it may be a worry that the device can no more be used when any one of the parts is lost. Further, since the capsule C is made holes by piercing the pins 83, 83 of the hole making member 82, burrs of the capsule C formed upon piercing the pin 83 protrude to the periphery of the holes to hinder the flow of air flowing inside the capsule C. Further, since air flowing through the capsule C upon inhalation by putting an inhaling port 89 of an inhaling mouth piece 88 in the mouth flows inward and outward by way of the pin insertion holes 87, 87 which are perpendicular to the air passageways 90, 90, neither large flow volume nor high flow velocity can be produced. Accordingly, this may cause a disadvantage that the powder in the capsule C is not discharged thoroughly but remains partially in the capsule C and the necessary amount of the medicine is not dosed into the lungs, or a disadvantage that the particle of the powdery medicine can not be dosed in a finely separated and dispersed state.
Further, it may be a worry that the powder in the capsule C is spilt by its own weight from the holes made in the capsule C, scatters into the pin insertion holes 87, 87 and leaks to the outside passing through the air passageways 90, 90 in communication with the pin insertion holes 87, 87. It also involves a drawback that the powder in the capsule C flows to the outside in a case of erroneously blowing breath from the inhaling port 89 of the inhaling mouth piece 88.
By the way, various powdery supplements prepared by powdering dietary supplements intended for easy intake of ingredients such as amino acids, proteins, anti-oxidants, various kinds of vitamins and minerals have been marketed recently. Such powdery supplements include those incorporated in bottles or in capsules. Since it is desirable to continuously intake supplements at a predetermined amount on every times for attaining good physical balance or improving the physical conditions, the intake amount is controlled by using a spatula or the like for the bottle-incorporated powdery supplements and by the number of the capsules to be taken in a case of encapsulated powdery supplements.
However, the bottle-incorporated powdery supplement is inconvenient to carry about and it is troublesome to take while measuring the intake amount on every times by the spatula. Further, while the encapsulated powdery supplement is convenient to carry about, since it is intaken together with the capsule, this is not suitable to those who feel difficulty in swallowing capsules.